Xuanzang or Hsuan Tsang (600?-664), celebrated Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim, later called Tripitaka. Xuanzang was responsible for introducing into China the Vijñanavada (Consciousness Only) school of Mahayana Buddhism, along with numerous sutras (Buddhist religious texts).

Born into a family of Confucian scholars during the Sui dynasty (581-618), Xuanzang converted to Buddhism and became a monk. Disturbed by contradictions in the available sutras, he decided to study in the great Buddhist centers of India. Despite failing to receive Chinese imperial permission for his journey, Xuanzang set out in 629. After making the difficult trek through Central Asia, he arrived in 633 at the heartland of Buddhism in northeastern India, where he made an intensive study of Sanskrit and the Buddhist sutras and visited sites associated with the Buddha's life. Xuanzang became famous for his skill at philosophical debate, and his prestige in India grew so great that he enjoyed royal patronage.

In 643 Xuanzang began his journey back to China (completed in 645), taking with him 657 Mahayana Buddhist writings contained in 520 packages. Received as a hero in Chang-an (now Xi’an), northern China, Xuanzang declined Emperor T'ai-tsung's award of a government post. Instead, he devoted himself to religion, translating into Chinese some of the most important sutras from his vast collection. He also established the Vijñanavada school in China, writing doctrinal texts and further developing the school's contention that the phenomenal world (the world of ordinary experience) was a creation of the mind. His nickname, Tripitaka (Three Baskets), refers to the Sanskrit title of the core canon (authoritative collection) of Buddhist scriptures, which he helped to deliver to China. His account of his journey, published during the reign of T'ai-tsung, chronicles the 130 kingdoms he visited and his various experiences. Xuanzang later appeared as the hero in the famous novel Xiyouji (published about 1570, translated as Journey to the West, 1980), by 16th-century Chinese writer Wu Chengen, which relates the fantastic adventures of Tripitaka and his companion, the Monkey King, on their way to India.